1)
“His Highness Prince Edwin.”
Perhaps the butler had not completely lost her composure as she greeted Edwin respectfully. Following in her footsteps, the rest of the maids also bowed to the prince.
“I was just punishing those who dared to disturb the order of the palace.”
Edwin turned to her, silently listening to her explanation.
“Who exactly disturbed the system?”
"…What?"
No one expected this response.
The prince always remained silent, no matter how much the maids harassed him or how harshly the butler scolded him. But his tone now was commanding.
The butler's eyes widened in astonishment.
Even I, despite the surprise, noticed something: Edwin's little fists were so stiff that they turned pale, and his big eyes were trembling with fear.
(Why?)
He was clearly afraid.
However, he did not back down.
“It was not this woman who disturbed the order... it was you.”
Edwin spoke clearly, looking directly into the butler's eyes. Despite his lack of the prestige of the Imperial House, he did not appear weak.
“S.. Your Highness, how do you say this..?”
“I am the lord of this palace. You know that, right?”
When asked, she could only open and close her mouth helplessly. She didn't understand why this little prince had suddenly changed.
“Everything here is mine, isn't it?”
“…yeah, right.”
“That includes maids too. Right?”
“N-Yes, Your Highness.”
Edwin gave her a calm look before continuing:
“But I don’t need those maids. They were never mine, they were always yours.”
Silence reigned throughout the hall.
There was no one who did not understand the meaning of the Little Prince's words.
The maids looked very nervous, and the butler stood rigidly, her face hard.
“But this woman is different.”
"…What?"
“This woman is a governess for me and Leia. Do you understand what that means?”
The butler's features grew distorted, but Edwin completely ignored her. He spoke like a young king announcing a fateful decision.
“My nanny belongs to me and to Leah, and no one else has the right to touch her.”
"Yes! Achille belongs to my brother and Leah!"
Emilia, who had been hiding behind her brother the whole time, set out to assert her ownership as well. Edwin held her hand tightly.
“If someone punishes her, I am the one who punishes her, and if someone rewards her, I am the one who rewards her. Therefore...”
He continued between his teeth, “If you lay your hand on her again, I will no longer stand idly by, butler.”
This was the little prince's first confrontation with the world around him.
“Achille, does it hurt a lot?”
"no."
Emilia, sitting on my lap, raised her teary eyes at me.
“But your face looks pained?”
"I'm fine."
"No, I'll blow on her. She'll be fine if I do that."
She blew warm breaths on my cheeks.
The little princess did not realize that the warm air only increased the sting of pain.
As I let her do it, Edwin suddenly turned from the window and shouted:
“You fool—!”
Emilia jumped in horror.
“Do you know what would happen if you provoked that witch? Do you know?!”
“Lower your voice, please. You are scaring the little princess.”
Edwin bit his lip as he saw his sister's terrified features.
“Do you know what I had to do because of you?” He muttered in a low, angry voice: “That witch will definitely go and tell the Second Empress everything. She will tell her everything.”
So, Edwin's real fear was neither from the butler nor from Countess Catherine... but from the Second Empress.
“So why did you interfere?”
"What?"
“Aren't you a coward, Your Highness?”
“W-what?!”
If he was truly the “Little Helpless Third Prince,” he would not have stood in the previous position. Curiosity prompted me to ask him.
Edwin, struck by my words, opened his mouth and closed it hesitating before exclaiming, his face red with emotion:
"Yes, I'm a coward! But I'm not a cowardly person! I promised Emma I wouldn't be like that!"
(Am I not a coward?)
I raised my eyebrows questioningly.
“You helped me because you are not a coward?”
“Yes! And you helped me, so I helped you in return.”
He raised his wrist proudly, showing the bracelet I retrieved from Gale's gang.
“I am a person who knows the meaning of gratitude!”
Someone who knows gratitude...
(Who would have expected such noble words to come out of the mouth of this mischievous little prince?)
She stared at the bracelet and then smiled weakly.
“Is that so?”
"Why are you laughing?"
“Nothing. But I believe that too, Your Highness.”
I touched my slightly swollen cheek and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
“If a favor is offered to me, it is only right that I return it in kind.”
I smiled at him, showing my teeth.
“I am also a person who knows the meaning of gratitude.”
Another scene
That evening, Catherine stood up to change her torn clothes.
“Huh?”
“What is it, Katherine?”
“My maid uniform is gone. I only had a spare one.”
Her colleague said as if she suddenly remembered, hitting her knee:
“Oh! I forgot to tell you. The nanny borrowed it.”
"governess?"
“She said she would bring it back clean.”
Catherine's face scrunched up in confusion. (She didn't have anything to wear? Why borrow a maid's uniform?)
But when she remembered the new nanny, she laughed lightly:
“She really is a strange nanny.”
Her colleague nodded:
“Right? Isn’t she strange? Even I find her strange.”
"What do you mean?"
“Those are the questions you asked us today.”
Catherine remembered how the nanny interrogated them about the butler’s relationship with Countess Catherine, about her going out times, and even about the details of her daily routine.
Her colleague shrugged her shoulders but suddenly trembled:
“She seems friendly, but her look is deadly. It really scares me.”
Catherine furrowed her eyebrows.
“No kidding. You helped me.”
Her colleague blinked, confused.
“Okay, okay. Anyway, there was a commotion in the main palace over this incident.”
"Noise? What happened?"
“They say the butler slapped the nanny in the face.”
"What?!"
Catherine screamed, and her colleague motioned for her to lower her voice.
“Don’t scream, you will wake up the others.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“It's okay. Anyway, Prince Edwin himself intervened and resolved the matter.”
“His Highness Prince Edwin?”
"Yes. He couldn't speak when Mrs. Conrad was insulted before, but he did this time."
Catherine lowered her head silently, then smiled softly.
“It's like something big is about to change.”
“Change? What will change?”
“Everything, maybe.”
Her colleague laughed:
"Do you have magical powers? Do you see the future?"
“No...it's just a feeling.”
But she did not know that her intuition would soon turn into reality.
The last scene
In the butler's office, the place was filled with the scent of fine perfume—a scent unbecoming of a woman of the rank of a baroness.
While she was away in the palace of the Second Empress, I was turning the place around as if I were her owner.
(Just as the annex maids said.)
The First Commandments of the Assassins: Careful Advance Investigation.
By observing her routine for days, I knew that her absence would last at least an hour.
She searched the books one by one... until from one of them fell a shining golden necklace, so luxurious that it left no doubt that it belonged to the imperial family.